As is often the case, some of the most flag-worthy conduct is also the most flagrant... In fact, some of the most flag-worthy conduct is so flag-worthy directly because it is so utterly flagrant.
Case in point: flagrant ignorance or perhaps (and even worse) flagrant disobedience of the RULES which bind this society together. The rules of which I speak are those which separate man from beast, wheat from chafe, and dinosaur bones from retarded fish frog. These are the rules which most of us know and love. For instance, not talking during a movie, not bogarting the last beer from a neighbor's fridge, and not asking me for change outside of my building. Of these rules, there is of course the rule, or perhaps the duty, to know your role in what I will call the "friendship spectrum."
Friendship Spectrum: (noun) Between two people, the grey area, or degrees of friendship, on the scale between "Casual Acquaintances" at one end, and "Triple-Uber-Bromigosabes" on the other. [From the Latin "to friendspect shiptscrum. Related to the light spectrum (i.e. ROYGBIV), only no colors, just shades of grey, moving from light to dark because, as we all know, friendship is mostly all Black.] The friendship spectrum contains a vast number of variations in between those two extremes. In fact, all us normal people know that this Spectrum exists - after all, we all use phrases in everyday language like "she and I are pretty good friends," "Yeah, we're kinda friends," or "No, we're not really that good of friends.
Now, the norms (i.e. rules) of society tend to logically dictate that the friend who you could rely on to bail you out of jail after you were arrested for soliciting that Vietnamese boy-girl, would earn him or herself a higher spot on the friendship spectrum than the dick who said he couldn't do it because he was "busy with a brutal game of multiplayer Halo." However, there's no bright-line rule which says that Friend A automatically earns a higher spot than Friend B. This is because Friend B, despite his douchebaggery in not bailing you out of jail, could still be your Bro (B as in Bro-oah), and friend A, who bailed you out, might simply be a FriendLY co-worker who's desperate for attention, and the only reason you had their number in your phone is because they forcibly supplied you with it one Friday evening after work, prefacing it with: "If you want to go to Applebee's later for some poppers, give me a call - my schedule's wide open." The point is that these are norms...
Normally, as the friendship progresses it goes higher on the spectrum (i.e. the friends climb the proverbial "Friendship Ladder" together), onward and upward to the point of ultimate friendship. The friends climb this metaphoric ladder through their common experiences shared, trusts built, secrets kept and stories told. Through these experiences, the friendship level grows, and with the higher level of friend designation comes more rights and responsibilities shared among the friends. I will return to this topic below...
Where the friendship falls on the spectrum is typically dependent upon the words and conduct between the friends - i.e. the stories shared, secrets kept, etc... This logically entails that it is the friends themselves who structure the "friendship," and hence mutually designate where the friendship falls on the Friendship Spectrum. In other words, C can't ever be the one to tell A or B that they are friends with each other... A and B have to figure that out on their own. After all, it is their friendship. However, sometimes one of these "friends" a bit of a dummy and doesn't quite understand (or else chooses to ignore) reality. For instance, in the above example, Friend A (the bailor) might view you (the victim, jailed for your Asian lust) as a better friend than you view them. The same goes for how you might view Friend B... You might think of Friend B as your BEST friend, while Friend B might think of you only as his pot-dealer with which he wants to have as little interaction as possible. In situations like this there is of course no bright-line rule saying that only if Friend A and Friend B "agree" that they are each the "same level" on the Friendship Spectrum (i.e. same rung of the Friendship Ladder) that the friendship actually "exists." In other words, there is no rule that says that only if Friend A considers Friend B to be 82% up the way towards ultimate friendship (BEST friends = 100%), and visa-versa, that there is truly a "meeting of the minds" so that we can call Friend A and Friend B "friends." In fact, we Normals all know that the degree of friendship can change both slightly and drastically over the course of the friendship depending on how the friendship progresses over the years and how the friends handle quarrels, arguments, etc... This type of thing happens all the time. The point here is that you never quite know exactly how a "friend" of yours might view you.
HOWEVER, there are acceptable degrees of certainty and uncertainty here... This is the flag-worthy issue. An rule by which we must all abide if we are going to make this friendship thing work... For example, because Friend 1 didn't return Friend 2's phone call promptly this week, 2 downgrades 1 to only 80% friend, thereby making the likelihood of 2, later in the week, inviting 1 to go to the movies with Friends 3, 4 and 5, only 80% as likely now. In the whole scheme of things, yeah, maybe Friend 2's feelings of the "Friendship Emotion" (i.e. the Friendmotion) went down slightly towards Friend 1, but they are still within roughly the same friendship level that they were at before. Not calling someone back is probably not going to alter the friendship that much. It's not like the missed phone call is going to be the straw the broke the camels back that makes Friend 2 decide not to give Friend 1, the diabetic who craves Nila Wafers, a kidney now. Most normal people in this situation understand that their long-lasting and built up friendship is roughly the same now as it ever was because they had a good idea of where their friendship was before this little incident. This is one of the rules of friendship which apparently needs flagging for some folk.
The rule of which I speak is the rule that you should fucking know if there is a vast disparity between the way you feel about someone and the way the might feel about you. If you don't, you are simply "that guy," and hence need to be flagged for your flag-worthy flagrant conduct of being a Flaggot.
In a civilized society you can't go around asking our friends questions about how they might rate the friendship they have with you. That is weird. You can't ask people hypothetical's to gauge the level of distress you would need to be in before they would be willing to lend you a hand, as a friend. (Question 1: If I needed $100 to keep my bookie from breaking my knees, would you give it to me? Question 2: Can I have $100?) You just can't do that. Why? Because it's one of the unwritten rules of society. That's all. Abide by them if you do not wish to be flagged. Now with this duty comes the duty to not ask your so-called friends to do things which exceed the level of Friendship Duty that they likely feel for you. Again, as I said above, the higher up the ladder the friends go, the more rights and responsibilities that come with the friendship. For example, if your mom dies tomorrow and you feel like you need some emotional support at her funeral you have only certain friends to look to (i.e. who have the responsibility to be there for you in your time of need). You typically look to your girlfriend/spouse, to long-time friends who maybe knew your mom, and to friends who would be comfortable in that type of situation. What do don't do is ask the fucking total-stranger cashier at Starbucks to fly to Minnesota with you in order to act as a corpse-viewing towel that you fucking cry all over for the entire weekend... Again, as you can see there are extremes here... Not every favor is going to be as immense as this one, and not every "friend" is going to be as completely detached as Dylan, the tight-jeaned wearing hipster shoveling the raw sugar into your latte' at the corner coffee shop. The point here is that you should know what level of friendship you are at with someone and what rights and responsibilities come with that level.
How do you know when you might be abusing those rights you think you have with someone you consider a friend? Well, while climbing the rungs of the Friendship Ladder with someone, if the friendship is going well that "Friendship Portrait" (a/k/a the "Diorama of Friendship") is going to be painted/constructed with mutual adventures, shared confidences, common interests, etc... Some of the signs of achievements earned on the "Friendship Report Card" will be more frequent texts/phone calls/invitations, a higher level of shared trust, a willingness to share, etc... All of these lead to a level of conformability between friends that should be recognized by both. If you are one of the many who can't recognize this then my only advice is to GFY --> Go Flag Yourself.
If you are one of the ones who doesn't recognize this perfectly reasonable (and perhaps, absolutely necessary) rule, then allow me to add another "Don't" to your list of "Things to consider or think about before you open your fucking mouth." Do not, and I repeat, DO NOT think that you can call a casual friend out in a group of people for some inane bullshit that your sick fucking mind has manufactured during the down-time in between your "dates" with Grey's Anatomy and Judge Joe Brown, which you apparently think is causing a rift in our "once great friendship." First of all, we are not good friends. We have never been good friends, and never will be good friends. I hate you.
Now for strangers to this story it is as such: I was recently called out in a group of actual friends by this whorish man-pig fake ass trick of a non-friend (who happens to be dating a good friend of mine - let's call him Bill) for the fact that I apparently ignored her when I saw her out at a bar recently. A bar, I might add, that I was at with a group of actual friends. And for the record, I didn't ignore her. I said hello, I made a bit of small talk, and went on my way because again, I came to the bar to chill with a group of actual friends, not to see her. For her to expect anything other than a casual hello and some brief friendly banter is completely uncalled for and flag-worthy. My revenge-hate manifesto is directed square at this fucking flagrant flaggot.
Whatever gave you the idea that our small level of friendship (I would have put it at roughly a 23% - now a complete non-friend) gave you the right to address me in public about "ignoring you" is beyond my comprehension... I am not your boyfriend bitch, you cannot nag me for not spending enough time with you. Not only do you not even approach me with this subject in mind, you do not ever seriously (and awkwardly, I might add) call me out for it in front of fellow acquaintances as if you are attempting to stage some kind of fucking intervention and my "ignoring you" is somehow tantamount to me being a fucking alcoholic's whose abuse of the creature (i.e. drinking) is starting to hurt his friends... To do such a thing is insanity. You are fucking crazy, and whatever duty you think I owe you to treat you as a great friend is completely misplaced - it is against the fucking life-rules. Like I said, we are not good friends. A few things that should have tipped you off? Well, for starters, the fact that I never call, text, speak, interact with or care about you, and continuously ignore your text-messages/phone calls/etc...
And then, while your bitching at me for ignoring you, don't say "Oh, and I've got another bone to pick with you... Why do you return my Bill's calls and not mine?" You want to know why? It's because I AM friends with HIM, but not with you. You are the worst. You are a whale-pig. I don't understand how to make this any fucking clearer. The reason I return his calls is because he and I have climbed the Friendship Ladder together already... We reached the point of friendship by getting drunk together and flagging others over the span of almost 3 years (like all normal friendships are formed). You, on the other hand, were just a fucking freeloader, a Friendship Leech, which drilled its fucking greasy fangs into the lifesblood of my hard-earned friendship and refuses to let go. You are a leech. You suck.
Now, you might ask "Well if you feel that way, why didn't you just talk to Bill about it?" Why? BECAUSE I AM A GOOD FUCKING FRIEND WHO KNOWS THAT BILL AND I ARE NOT GOOD ENOUGH FRIENDS THAT I CAN BRING UP THE SUBJECT ABOUT HOW MUCH I FUCKING HATE YOU. In fact, because you are so fucking flag-worthy, you are now detracting from his score on my friendship scale because of the fact that he apparently can't keep his bitch on a leash (or in your case, a gorilla cage).
I am the normal one. You are weird. You are flagged.
P.S. My relationship with this "Bill" character is not gay.